Today’s post is about a bumpy day … or 30.

I’ll start with something happy and precious, but then it’s going to get real, so if you’re after your daily boost of feel good I’d suggest you awww at the photo then come back tomorrow.

Sometimes carrying the full weight of someone else can feel overbearing, and sometimes comforting. When it’s one of my three gorgeous kids, it’s always comforting.

What do you do when the ends don’t meet? We’ve all heard the expression making ends meet. I feel like I’ve been doing that for such a long time now. But this month the ends (as frayed as they are) just won’t meet no matter how much I stretch them.

You know the kind of month: you expect (hope for) your tax return to be a little more than what it turns out to be. Your car registration and insurance are due. And your car really needs a service. Registration and insurance win because you really need your car to get places. But your tax return doesn’t quite cover it, so the miniscule amount of money you have left in your ‘savings’ (ha ha) account goes on that. The service will have to wait.

You get a letter from Centrelink (kind of like social services I think for those of you who live in the US) telling you that because of your change in circumstances that they have overpaid your child care benefit (they pay a percentage of your out-of-pocket child care expenses in Australia to encourage women to go back to work) and you owe them a couple of thousand dollars. It’s a very long and boring story but suffice it to say that the only change in circumstances we’ve had in the past year is having to move house and pay an extra $75 per week in rent; and our savings account – which used to be a savings account – is now looking just as paltry as our daily account. Not really what I’d imagine constitutes reason enough for them to decide we’ve been overpaid. Boring right? I know!

You get your power bill. You know (because you’d have to be living under a rock to not know) that power bills have gone up on average 21%. My last power bill was $350 and we all know numbers aren’t my thing, but even I can figure out that I’m looking somewhere around the $425 mark. Factor in winter (not that I use heating for more than the hour that we are home until Bubba goes to bed – then the heating goes off and I cuddle up with my heat bag and the dogs) and it’s maybe another $50? Wrong people. Oh, so wrong. $647. They can send someone out to check things and reread my meter if I’d like them to. For another $70. No thanks, here’s $250 and I’ll give you the rest when I can.

You have a great job, but it’s a contract. And the contract is up at the beginning of December. There are a few things in the pipeline, but nothing concrete. So that’s a little stressful.

Your Bubba needs meds that to administer is going to cause a lot of stress, thrashing about, screaming and crying. (And that’s just mumma.) $80-something in the pharmacy and the pharmacist was rude to boot.

You get home and there’s a reminder letter from the vet. One of the dogs is due for their yearly vaccinations. We have pet insurance but it doesn’t cover the standard stuff, only if something should go wrong (oh DOG no!).

Then, you drag your exhausted self inside last night (having had not a proper night’s sleep in weeks) to the sound of a terrible high-pitched beeping. Looking up at the smoke detector you expect to see the red light beeping at you to let you know the batteries need changing. But it’s not the smoke detector making the noise. You’re kind of glad because you don’t have a ladder tall enough to change the battery. Until you realise what is making the noise that is.

It’s the fridge door.

Which is wide open.

And has apparently been open for enough hours that the sunshine beaming through the skylight in your kitchen has warmed to the point of ruin 90% of what was in your fridge. And that was a lot because I’d just done my huge shop and prepared Bubba’s snacks, lunches, cut up all of our fruit and vegetables, stocked up on yoghurt, milk and cheeses.

I think that about sums it up. So Universe, I know I’ve asked before, but I’m not sure if maybe we were on a different frequency? This time I really need you to listen up: cut me a break will you? I’m a nice girl. Really I am.

I know there are people doing it a lot tougher than me in the world right now. There are people without the basic necessities of food, water, shelter and love. There are also animals without those essentials. So I don’t want you to think that I’m not appreciative of what I do have. If you are a long time reader, you’ll know that I absolutely am – and that I acknowledge how incredibly lucky I am quite often.

But it wouldn’t be a real blog about our real life if I never posted about when the road is bumpy. And I really needed to get it off my chest.

Regular happy posting will resume tomorrow.